Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1887-01-01

tdelI SCIENCE 10 a SiaSIe dits VI W llidhe
anything that is needed in every day life.
Hence it is that there are many we'll edu-
Gated men, who for want of knowledge of
some manual art, sink down into common
laborers. | have often thought it a mis-
homer at least, if not a biting sarcasm, to
see a man educated to the highest degree
in science, have conferred upon him the
title of Bachelor or Master of Arts, when
he had not the practical knowledge in any
art, that a shoemakers or timers appren-
tice would have learned in three months,
and by which he might make his living.
The manual training school will remedy
this deficiency, and the knowledge there
acquired, will not %injure, but rather bene-
fit him, if he should AVE a taste for, and
embrace any of the learned or scientific
professions; and in any event it would
place in his hands the means Of support
ing himself by practicing some art.
Science is necessary; it discove rs truths,
but art %appropriates and utilizes them,
through the aid of tools. Science is learn
ed in the schools, but has to be utilized in
the workshop. Art has utilized the discov-
cries of science, and hence we have the
steamship, the locomotive, factories of
every description, and what are called the
fine arts, as sculpture, painting, architec-
ture, etc.
Now, art can accomplish but little with
out tools, and hence our civilization is
mostly due to the use of tools, and hence
again from the centres of manufactures
civilization has radiated. England and
France have, until within a few years
past, been the great manufacturing cen
tiers, and from them civilization has radiat-
ed all over the world. They have made
the articles which the rest of the world
needed. Manufacturers and commerce,
not the missionaries, nav been the civiliz-
ers Of the savage nations. They have
been rendered comfortable by the arts of
the world. What does a savage care for
all the teachings of the preachers if he is
cold and hungry? His first necessity is
for something to feed and clothe himself
with. When he is warm and comfortable,
he will listen to the preacher, or he will
eat him when he is cold and hungry, as
has been done. Art and commerce pave
the way for the preacher. Hence it fol-
lows that the last great object of educa-
ton is the practical use of skill in the
arts. To this end the requirements of all
knowledge should lead. This should be
the end and aim of all the teachings in
our schools-to learn some art, trade or
profession, by which to make a living.
The next thing is to learn how to apply
the knowledge, (science) learned in the
schools, to some practical art OR use. This
the manual training school proposes to do.
1t is principally by learning the use of
tools in the shop, the practice OF agricul-
ture on the college farm, chemistry and
natural philosophy by actual experiments
in short, all things to be done by the hand
and eye, so as to prove them.
The brain and thinking power has first
to be educated, through the senses. The
knowledge thus gained can only be utiliz-
ed through the hand and eye.
With all the knowledge of ancients,
solomon's Temple, the Hanging Gardens
of Babylon, the Pyramids of Egypt, the
great Roman highways and acqueducts,
could not have been built, only for the
manual training their architects, engin-
GERS and builders had received through
the education of the eye and hand by
master teachers, in the great work shops
of the ancients.
So. in modern times, We are more in
debted to the laboratory or workshops
places where the deductions of science are
proved and put to use-for all our magnif-
icent systems of steamships, railroads, no
BILE buildings, electric lights, water and
gas works, telegraph and telephone lines,
and manufactures of every description,
than to all the colleges in the world. The
college alone would have given us the
science, (theories) but combined with art,
(the workshop We have the grand results.
ssssI have said enough as to the necessity
of acquiring knowledge in the schools,
and of the necessity of utilizing that
knowledge in the manual training school
or laboratory.
propose now, as briefly as possible, to
show what a manual training school or
laboratory is, and how they are conducted.
The manual training school is a series
of shops where the use of tools is taught,